The cold passed through the body. Clouds with magenta colors glowed in the sky

The cold passed through the body. Clouds with magenta colors glowed in the sky

Kristi Kongi

Mixed media on paper, framed

29 × 28 cm

2020

Kristi Kongi is an artist represented by the Kogo Gallery, who recently got nominated for the artist’s salary in Estonia, which will allow her to devote to her work over the next three years.

Each work in her watercolour series “Is There Any Light And Colour Left?” is like an entry in a diary about the artist’s observations and thoughts over light, colours, and emotions. The titles are like poems. Some of them are quotations from books important to the artist. She started with the series in the spring of 2020 due to the isolation of the pandemics. These works are also part of her artistic process. They are the visual ideas that Kristi later transfers into the form of oil paintings, installations, and exhibitions. The first presentation of the series “Is There Still Light And Colour?” took place at the Kogo gallery as part of the group exhibition “Time to Dream or Fear?“ in 2020.

About the artist

Kristi Kongi (born 1985) is a painter and installation artist whose work focuses on colour, light, and space. Her brightly coloured paintings often take the form of impressive installations made for specific settings creating effect that Estonian art critic Elnara Taidre described as “painting within a painting” or meta-painting. Besides painting on canvas, walls, floors and ceilings, she also uses various coloured materials such as fabric, plywood and acrylic plastic to create her installations. Her works are based on specific or imagined places, and her observations, emotions and memories. Kristi Kongi is using thorough research and experiments in painting where she trials various colours, light and shade. The artist refers to these experiments as ‘exercises with the moon’. Her work is both poetic – this is also expressed in the titles – as well as systematic and analytical.

Kristi Kongi studied painting at Tartu Art College (BA, 2004-2008) and graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts painting department (MA, 2008-2011). She’s been awarded with Young Artist Prize (2011), Sadolin Art Prize (2013), Konrad Mägi Prize (2017), Estonian Cultural Endowment’s annual award (2021) and was nominated for the Köler Prize in 2016. Kristi Kongi is among the recipients of the national artists’ salary between 2022–2024. She is an Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts painting department.

See her profile also in the artists’ database by the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art.